Shadow Dragons
by PeterPanxXxLove
Summary: Secrets are unveiled and new allegiances forged as the war against Voldemort takes an unexpected twist. Family duty and honor clash as the line between what's right and what's wrong disappears.
1. Chapter 1:Meetings

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot =]

Chapter 1: Meetings

Harry Potter gazed out the window of his bedroom in Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he pondered on the strange events of the day. The gentle snores belonging to

his roommates a soft noise in the background.

Everyone had been expecting for Voldemort and his Death Eaters to make an appearance and attempt an attack on Harry during his trip to King's Cross or during his ride in the Hogwarts Express. Members of the Order and a guard provided by the Ministry were ever present throughout the day, but there was absolutely no sign of Voldemort or his deranged, psychotic followers.

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They had reached Hogwarts unscathed, just like any other normal return trip to Harry's new home. Well, normal except for one small inconvenience...Malfoy.

When they had exited the Express, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Neville, Ginny, and Luna walked together in a small group towards the carriages that would soon lead them to the castle. Hermione was fuming because apparently she had been chosen as Head Girl. Usually this achievement would have been received with immense happiness, pride, and lots of blushing in her part. But then she'd found that the one picked to share her duties and responsibilities was none other that her archenemy. The new Head Boy of Hogwarts was none other than Draco Malfoy.

"I can't believe it! It's the most ridiculous thing anyone could have ever thought of doing! I mean, what was Professor Dumbledore thinking?" She exclaimed, not for he first time, making Harry and Ron throw her an exasperated look. Ron was about to answer with something that was bound to make Hermione's frustration grow when they all heard a voice that was all too familiar and hated to the six of them.

"I'm not thrilled about it either, Granger, but I don't think Dumbledore would appreciate you calling him stupid." he drawled.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned around to find themselves staring at the tall, pale figure of the new Head Boy. Harry, naturally, felt and urge to hex that stupid smirk of his face, but suddenly noticed it surprised them all, he was alone.

"So, Malfoy, where are your own personal bodyguards? Or have Crabbe and Goyle finally realized that you're more stupid and worthless than them?" Ron, of course, went on the offensive.

"Hardly. They're doing me a...shall we say, small favor?" He responded, a spark of annoyance lighting his eyes before they became expressionless again. "So Potter, I see you're not dead yet. Mind hurrying it up a bit so I don't have to wait until my birthday to throw a Grand Ball. It would be a sight, you in a coffin, surrounded by mudbloods and muggle lovers, weeping over your pale, lifeless body." He said, and that condescending smirk of his appeared, changing his face and making his eyes gleam like silver daggers. Harry's voice, though strained, was as emotionless as Malfoy's face had been moments ago.

"I have no control over my death, Malfoy, unless I walk up to Voldemort and give him permission to kill me, and I'm almost positive that would spoil his fun. But if you want me dead, then I suggest you kill me yourself, because otherwise your wish isn't going to be granted anytime soon. I don't plan on committing suicide just yet." He finished, and his smirk now matched Ron's and Neville's.

Malfoy dropped his smirk, but his eyes still held amusement. He walked up to Harry and stood nearly nose-to-nose with him. With surprise, Hermione noticed that they were nearly the same height. Harry must have grown over the summer. Suddenly the air turned cold, and Hermione, Ginny, and Luna couldn't stop from noticeably shivering. There was something nagging at the back of Luna's mind, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Something was very wrong.

Luna was looking right at Malfoy when a sudden gust of wind flew by them, blowing Malfoy's shoulder length hair blew around his head, revealing only to Luna a trace of swirling black marks emerging from his collar. A million thoughts raced through her mind, but one was prominent; _'Impossible!'_

With no warning the wind was gone and Malfoy was stepping away from Harry, his eyes oddly glazed, his face unfathomable. When he spoke, his voice was deeper than usual, but none other than Luna seemed to noticed..

"Don't make an offer that I'll be so tempted to take Potter. Either you watch your words around me, or you'll wake up one day with your throat slit." He said simple. Hermione gasped and looked about to say something, but Ron beat her to it, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Finally following in your father's footsteps, eh, Malfoy?" He said, tempting the blond boy to lose his temper.

Before Neville and Harry could follow Ron's lead or Hermione could attempt to stop the incoming fight, a clear, high voice broke through the trees, and out of them stepped Blaise and a girl who none of them had ever seen before. She was, to say the least, captivating.

She was tall, the top of her head nearly reaching Blaise's chin, which was saying something since he was as tall as Malfoy. Her hair, jet black with something akin to mahogany highlights running through it, had a striking effect against her pale skin. Her skin was translucent, perfect, and her nose was angular and flawless. She had full, rosy lips that were placed in a thing line. Her perfect eyebrow and long, black eyelashes accentuated her pale skin as her hair did.

But none of her eye-catching features could manage to draw your attention away from her eyes. They were the color of ice, the color you could associate with snow and the icy winds of the Russian tundra. But at the same time they were gray and bottomless.

"Draco", she said, softer this time, and walked forwards, placing a hand on his upper arm. At her actions, Draco's lid shut closed and his stiff expression softened, if only infinitesimally. He opened his eyes and looked at Potter, who's grip on Ron's elbow had slackened. He moved his eyes towards Hermione, who's face was frozen in an emotionless stare, her eyes locked on him. His gaze lingered on her for a moment longer, and then he turned around, wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders and started walking away. He stopped, perhaps 5 feet away from Blaise, and said in a voice that made Ron take a step back.

"Watch your back, Potter, and watch it carefully. My patience is growing thin, and you don't want to be anywhere near me when I lose it."

They were all rather astonished at the events enfolding before their eyes. For the first time in seven years, he feared what Draco Malfoy might do. His family was, after all one of the oldest and most powerful in the wizarding world. Wiping away all trace of fear in his eyes and voice, Harry answered.

"And you watch yours, Malfoy, if you want to join your father in Azkaban, you only have to ask."

Malfoy's next words surprised even Harry, mostly because there was actually a trace of regret in his tone.

"Don't I wish that's where he was." And with that, he walked away.

The rest of the nigh was uneventful, except for when Dumbledore announced Professor Lupin would be returning to Hogwarts as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. At that the announcement, the school went wild, and even announced that Hagrid's class had become mandatory for all years. The excited, perky mood, didn't leave the Great Hall.

But no matter what he thought about, Harry couldn't forget Malfoy's last words, or the penetrating gaze at the mysterious girl at Malfoy's side. It reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place who.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine except the plot and OC's.

Chapter 2: Introductions

As Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom the next day, none of them could deny the ever-increasing excitement rising inside their chests.

"This is marvelous, Harry," said Hermione, and the glee in her voice was poorly hidden. "Can you imagine everything he could teach us now that it's obvious Voldemort is back. He must at least preparing to teach us defensive curses of some sort, if not something better!"

Both she and Ron were becoming more comfortable at saying the Dark Lord's name, even if Ron's face paled at times when he heard the word and Hermione almost always shuddered.

"She's right, mate. If Dumbledore is giving him the position again, then it means he's here to teach us something very important of—"

"Or they're giving me another bodyguard." Harry's voice was carefully guarded, and Hermione eyed her friend warily.

Since Sirius's death, Harry had changed, and even thought these changes were seldom noticed by anyone, Hermione wondered if she still knew her best friend at all. At times, like now, when Harry's eyes glazed over and the lines of his faced hardened, she couldn't help but compare him a bit to Malfoy.

And it's not like there was nothing to compare when his face lost all emotion, it was just the similarities were most prominent when his expression froze in a look of complete apathy. At these time Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter seemed so alike that it scared the hell out of her.

Since their first year, Harry had seemed to grow taller by day, and Hermione had realized with amazement last night that he and Draco were exactly the same height. When Harry and Hermione had met, his eyes had been a soft hazel, over the past six or seven years, they had morphed to an amazingly entrancing jade. Sometimes his eyes were so penetrating, so mesmerizing, that she found herself blurting out things without meaning to. His hair was lighter, a dark, rich, ebony, instead of the old simple black. To end the topic, Harry Potter had become one of the most attractive men Hermione had ever met, and she didn't even know how.

As the trio walked past a group of sixth year female students, Hermione saw for the first time the very inappropriate looks they sent Harry, and the jealous glares they sent her way. She had to try very hard not to burst out laughing, but apparently some giggles escaped through, because Ron and Harry suddenly raised two perfectly arched eyebrows her way.

"What?" She asked, glad to see Harry's face soften.

"I don't know," said Ron, "you just looked like you'd seen something really funny. I was just wondering if Snape was running around in a wedding gown following a terrified Professor Flitwick who doesn't want to be the groom. I wouldn't want to miss that." He and Ron doubled over, breathless, hiccuping laughter, and Hermione began breathing slowly through her nose, by hoping this would help the laughter that was threatening to spill.

* * *

"If you're done being disrespectful, Ron," she said, gritting her teeth to fight down the laugh that was about to burst through, "we're going to be late."

They weren't. When they reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, there were only two other students there, and the closed doors indicated that class hadn't started. Ron bent down an whispered exasperatedly in her ear.

"Did you even look at the clock this morning?"

She was about to answer but the two people at the door turned around and Hermione nearly cried out.

Draco Malfoy was staring straight at her with eyes full of anger and annoyance. But Hermione was staring not at his face, but at his shirt, which was unbuttoned and she had a wonderful view of Draco's deliciously muscled torso and abdomen. And there was something else, too. Something black covered by the left side of his shirt. Something that looked like a tattoo and was right about his heart...

"Enjoying the view, Granger?" he said, his hard voice carrying an edge that tasted almost like anxiety and nervousness.

"Actually, no." Hermione answered, surprised at how controlled her voice sounded. "I was just trying not to retaste the morning's meal. That would be a very unlady-like thing to do. Which reminds me, shouldn't be doing this in the privacy of your rooms, Malfoy? And I don't think you should be doing this at all. If I remember correctly, and I usually do, it is against school policy to have _that_ kind of fun on school grounds, Malfoy." She didn't know how or when but by the end of her little rant, his uniform was in perfect, appropriate condition.

"Actually, it is against school rule, not that I follow those by the way, but anyway, it would also be committing incest. An act, I must admit I find very disgusting." He finished, with his familiar condescending smirk in place.

In confusion, Hermione, Harry and Ron looked to his side, and Ron allowed himself a small gasp. At Draco's side, with his arm around her shoulders, was the girl from last night, wearing the Slytherin cloak and uniform. But unlike the rest of the girls at Hogwarts, the girl was wearing knee-high, black leather, high-healed boots with a pointed foot and criss-cross ties from the top right down to below the front of the ankle. Hermione was distracted from her assessing of the daring shoes by Ron's voice.

"What?! How—" But he was cut off by the opening of the doors and a large group of students turning around the corner and heading their respective ways.

The trio was overwhelmed by the yells that came from all around them as the students ran to greet their long-lost Professor Lupin.

Once the class was seated and silent, Lupin spoke, "Well, first of all, good morning to you all, and thank you for the warm welcome." All around there was applause and cheering. The atmosphere around them was changing, and Harry, Ron and Hermione were already feeling much better when...

"Before we begin today's lesson, I would like to welcome a new student." In that moment Harry, Ron, and Hermione froze over, and a low murmur traveled through the classroom. Hermione felt Harry stiffen at her side and she looked over at the table were Malfoy usually sat. And sure enough, Malfoy's new replacement for the annoyance that was Pansy Parkinson was standing up a guarded, emotionless look plastered on her beautiful face.

Gasps went through the classroom went through the classroom and Harry wondered if anyone aside from them had laid eyes upon Malfoy's new price. The moment Lupin lifted his eyes from the papers he'd been looking at and glanced at the girl standing in the middle of the large, round room, his eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared. Harry wondered if anyone had noticed it it, but then dismissed the idea as he realized that all eyes were on the enigmatic female with the dark hair.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Jade Malfoy. I hope your move from France won't damage your last year of school." Lupin's voice was tight, and even Ron noticed.

"Thank you, Professor Lupin, I look forward to a new year at the famous Hogwarts. I've heard things are far more exciting here than anywhere else in the magical world. Or so my brother tells me." She smiled a secretive smirk that made it very clear that there was a double meaning to her words no one was meaning to get.

After she sat down, class began and that little moment of tension was forgotten. At least everyone forgot about it except Harry. He would not admit it to anyone, but the sound of the girl's voice, wind chimes echoing through an ancient forest, had caused a shiver to travel from the top of his hairline to the tip of his toes, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the classroom.


End file.
